Adil Rashid has called for people not to expect too much, too soon from fellow legspinner Lloyd Pope. The 18-year-old Australian made the headlines this week when he became the youngest man in history to claim a seven-wicket haul in the Sheffield Shield.
But Rashid, who claimed a six-wicket haul on his own first-class debut, urged expectations of Pope to be tempered and suggested that any comparisons with Shane Warne would be unhelpful and potentially damaging.
“Any legspinner growing up needs to be given time,” Rashid said. “You don’t just want to throw them in the deep end too soon. You want him to develop his skills and, as he gets older, he’ll mature and get better with age.
“As an Australian legspinner, he has to follow in the footsteps of Shane Warne who is a great. He’s done magic for the game.
“But that could potentially be a dangerous route to go for Pope. So it’s about making sure if he does get straight in to the Australia team he’s not affected by the hype around that. It’s about making sure he’s nice and relaxed, keeping it simple and not really have too much expectation of himself and also others having them of him.”
Pope, who took 7 for 87 in South Australia’s ongoing Sheffield Shield game against Queensland, also starred against England in this year’s Under-19 World Cup. His 8 for 35 in their quarter-final match-up helped dismiss England for 96 chasing 128 for victory.